Chris Szeto - "these are not the droids you are looking for"

April 20, 2009

TripIt FAIL

I am a big fan of TripIt.com and their latest iPhone application, but I was recently disappointed with my TripIt experience during what I consider my key customer moments.

Key Moment #1: 24 hours before flight
TripIt FAIL, Friday 4/17
On Friday night, the day before my trip to Japan, I tried to view my TripIt itinerary on the iPhone and saw an empty itinerary with a vague error message . I tried to sign out and back in again, but without success. What was wrong? I had thought that a printed itinerary would be unnecessary since I had a beautiful TripIt itinerary on my iPhone… but it wasn’t working and I didn’t know why.

I then resigned to print out an itinerary from TripIt.com. Ah ha! TripIt.com was down for site maintenance! What inconvenient timing! I couldn’t print out an itinerary either. I had moved all of my itineraries and confirmation numbers to TripIt, but now 24 hours from my trip, I couldn’t access them. When would I be able to? It would have been nice to see an ETA.
I searched through my gmail and yahoo mail for my flight confirmation emails and my hotel confirmation and jotted things down on a piece of paper…

Key Moment #2: Day of flight
TripIt OK, Saturday 4/17
On Saturday morning, I checked TripIt.com again and discovered that everything was back up again. Good. The iPhone app was working again as well. I printed the itinerary (just to be safe), and threw away the hand-written piece of paper from the previous night… Japan, here I come!

Key Moment #3: On the plane
TripIt iPhone FAIL, Saturday 4/17
There isn’t much under-the-seat storage, so I put my backpack up in the overhead storage, along with my printed TripIt itinerary. I had a window seat with another passenger next to me - a big guy.
An hour into the flight, the flight attendant brings by the customs cards. Hmm – my paper itinerary is in my backpack overhead. Ah, but my iPhone is in my pocket (in Airplane mode of course)! I should be able to just use TripIt to look it up – even in Airplane mode – just like other apps (Notes, Todo, etc). Sadly, the itinerary was empty. I would end up having to ask the big guy to step aside so that I could retrieve my paper itinerary. There’s no reason why the TripIt iPhone app couldn’t store the itinerary on my phone.

Key Moment #4: In Japan (Abroad without Coverge)
TripIt iPhone FAIL, Sunday 4/18
See above. A cached itinerary would be helpful.

Some Improvements for TripIt:
1. The iPhone App should cache my itineraries on the phone so that it is accessible even when I have no connectivity (Airplane mode or Japan) and even when the site is undergoing maintenance.
2. The iPhone App needs a better error message if the site is going down for maintenance. Also, please provide an ETA for when service should be back up.

UPDATED 4/20/09 at 7:41 PM: Thanks to Will and Scott from TripIt for reaching out to me and letting me know about a pending new version of the iPhone client - I look forward to abadoning paper itineraries. Also, the maintenance was only for 20 minutes. It would still be helpful for those people that hit the service during scheduled maintenance to have some sort of estimated downtime. Still a TripIt fan!

Comments [3]

April 5, 2009

iPhone Apps

I have had my iPhone for over a year now, and I've probably spent over $100 on apps. I thought it would a good time to list out my favorite iPhone apps. I should probably do this every now and then. Let me know what you think and what apps you think I might be missing out on:

Favorite and Most Used Apps:

Tweetie - fantastic Twitter client
Todo - full featured todo-list app. It desperately needs push notifications to become perfect
Facebook - required for every Facebook user. However, I have been using Twitter more and Facebook less lately
BeejiveIM - very good but very expensive IM client. I will replace this with Meebo's iPhone App when it becomes available
Flixster - the ultimate movie source. I use this to look up movies before heading to a theater
DVR Remote - a remove control for your tivo. I use this to browse my Now Playing queue without turning on the TV. I will also use this to input text
Flight Control - a fantastic, simple, beautiful little game.
USA Today - a well built app for news. I haven't tried the NYTimes in a while. But other news apps haven't been as easy to use.

Most Used but Not-So Enjoyable Apps:

Bloomberg - for stock quotes, landscape graphs, and news! Ugly app though. I will try the new Stocks app when it becomes available
Weather Channel - the ultimate weather info. Hourly and 10-day views are great. Ugly app with ads.

Favorite iPhone Web App:

Google Reader - so good it doesn't need to be native.

Apps Wishlist:

TripIt - This would be fantastic to have when i travel
Slingbox - i have been patiently waiting for this one
Warfish.net - with push notifications and an improved UI, this could be a lot of fun.
Something to scan barcodes and check prices on Amazon...
Netflix - Something to manage my queue would be great. And actually, if I could watch instant movies - that would be fantastic

Bonus:

I wish there was a way in iTunes to manage my home screens! I very much dislike manually moving apps one at a time. Very painful. I should be able to see my home screens in iTunes and drag things around there and then sync it.

What iPhone Apps do you recommend?

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March 28, 2009

Sofie - After Grooming

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March 28, 2009

Sofie - Before Grooming

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March 28, 2009

DVR Remote for iPhone

I recently found DVR Remote, an App for the iPhone that allows you to control your Tivo over WiFi. I have a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote which I love, but when I found this app, I became intrigued.

As a remote control for my Tivo, this is pretty lame:

The buttons are small and it's easy to hit the wrong button.
The auto-sleep on the iPhone makes it annoying when you when you want to say... Pause now.

It works, but it doesn't replace your Tivo or universal remote. However as a guide and keyboard, this app is great! These are a few of my favorite features:

Type using your iPhone!
This is the best reason to get this app. I hate typing things on the Tivo using the left, right, up, down buttons. But with this DVR Remote App, you can type what you want, hit enter and the app will send the correct sequence of buttons to type out anything. This saves you so much time and frustration.
Browse your Now Playing List
You can can also browse what has been recorded and read the summaries on the iPhone from anywhere in your home. If you are watching a show, you can browse the Now Playing without interrupting your show. The only thing missing is the ability to actually select a show from Now Playing to watch.
Favorite Channels
You can also setup favorite channels, which is very convenient

As TV's and DVR's become more connected, the remote is going to need to evolve. Text input and content browsing need to be overhauled. This will be an interesting space to watch as the smartphone market continues to grow and smartphones become the interface for other devices.

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March 8, 2009

Twitter

I am making a concerted effort of using Twitter. In the past week, I've had maybe a dozen people add me on Twitter - even though I do not "tweet" much. If you read this and you actually use Twitter (and you care enough to), you can follow me @szetopia.

So what client do I use to Twitter? Sometimes I simply use twitter.com. On my iPhone, I was using Twitterific, but am now using Tweetie ($3). On my mac, I am using TweetDeck, an AIR client.

I also think Twitter search is very cool. I sometimes keep an eye on #meebo to find out what people think about the latest Meebo release.

Everyone seems to use Twitter in slightly different ways. As I figure how I like to personally use Twitter, I'll post a few more thoughts about it here. If you stumble upon this post, please feel free to leave a comment as to how you use Twitter, or if you don't - why not?

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March 1, 2009

Macbook Pro

The new 17" Macbook Pro has some pretty amazing specs. To me the most notable feature is the 8 hour battery with 1000 charges! That's great. I have pretty much converted to Apple these days with my iPhone and older Macbook Pro.

There are only 2 things left that I think I need before I would get a personal Macbook Pro:

Please give me a 15" with 10 hour battery. 17" is too big. I can barely open my 15" on a plane. 13.3" is too small for my tastes. You would think that a bigger screen would have smaller batter life, but no - the new 15" has a 5 hour battery.
Blu-ray please. I like to watch movies on my laptop - particularly when when I travel. I have started a Blu-ray library and I would like to use them on my Macbook Pro. Even my wedding video is Blu-ray.

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December 29, 2008